Altisource Portfolio Solutions' acquisition of Mortgage Builder Software will close next month, the companies announced Monday, following weeks of rumors but no official confirmation of the deal.
The transaction is expected to close within 30 days. Financial terms between Luxembourg-based Altisource and Mortgage Builder were not disclosed.
Mortgage Builder, based in Southfield, Mich., develops origination and servicing technology and has about 65 employees and roughly 125 to 150 lender clients, mostly small to midsize mortgage bankers and financial institutions. After the acquisition, it will operate within Altisource's Technology Services segment, which is currently headed by Mark Hynes.
Representatives from the two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When National Mortgage News reported in June that a deal was in the works, Mortgage Builder CEO Keven Smith said he was open to outside investment to help his Southfield, Mich.-based company grow.
Altisource is a provider of technology, outsourcing and fulfillment services to the mortgage and real estate industries and was spun off from nonbank mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. in August 2009. Ocwen remains Altisource's largest customer, though the company has expanded from its core focus of default servicing and REO asset management into mortgage originations.
In buying Mortgage Builder, Altisource may be seeking a venue to sell more of its origination services, some have speculated.
Altisource's technology division includes a suite of software and tools for vendor management, default servicing, electronic invoicing, and commercial and residential loan servicing systems of record. Mortgage Builder's Colonnade software is a servicing system of record. It's unclear what Altisource's plans are for the overlapping platforms.
In May, Altisource announced the launch of Altisource Labs, a venture capital unit to invest in and incubate enterprise software, analytics and other corporate technology. The companies did not say whether Mortgage Builder would fall under the auspices of Altisource Labs.
